Components are often joined together end-to-end using adhesively bonded joints. Scarf joints are one example of an adhesively bonded joint. Scarf joints provide benefits over lap joints or various other types of adhesively bonded joints due to their increased control of shear peaking. Shear peaking occurs when a load applied to the joint is not uniformly transmitted along the length of the joint. Shear peaking typically occurs at the ends of the joint where the bond terminates. Conventional scarf joints provide angled surfaces at the ends of the components being joined, creating two flat planes that meet at an angle relative to the axis through the components.
The strength of a scarf joint is dependent upon the length-to-thickness ratio (LTR) of the joint. Low LTRs in which the length of the scarf joint is relatively short and the thickness of the components at the scarf joint is relatively thick, provide weak bonds. Conversely, high LTRs in which the length of the scarf joint is relatively long and the thickness of the components at the scarf joint is relatively thin, provide stronger bonds. A problem arises, however, in implementations in which the geometric constraints of the components being joined do not allow for optimum LTRs.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.